The Experiment (Attack on Titan // LeviHan) (Part 1)

Going Down

"Oh shit," Zoë grabbed Levi's arm and squeezed hard, her steps faltering. "I know him. He was in my training squad. He'll know who I am."

By 'him', she must mean the one Military Police officer who was looking in their direction attentively instead of playing cards like his fellow officers. Brown hair, hard eyes and a pinched mouth.

"He won't recognize you," Levi tried to calm her but her body had gone rigid. Even a less attentive person could see she was acutely uncomfortable. "Relax," he hissed and shook her a little.

Passing the gates into the inner district had been easy. Too easy, considering that the guards and the gates were there for a reason: which was the security of the royal family and their wealthiest subjects. Not that Levi had any care for them but if anyone came to harm in here, it wouldn't be the negligent MP guards who'd be punished. They'd find a way to put the blame on the poorest - or the Survey Corps... they always did.

"My disguise is shit," Hange gulped.

"It's not," he assured her.

He dragged her forward, linking his arm with hers to pull her along. If in disguise, you had to believe that you were who you pretended to be - it made discovery much more unlikely. He had told her that several times, she had understood... now she just needed to get her confidence back.

Besides, her disguise really wasn't bad. She had bound her breasts very tightly as instructed and pulled off a man's gait surprisingly well for a woman. With her top hat that hid her hair, the blinding white shirt with high collar over high waist pants, the impeccable cravat, grey waistcoat and midnight blue tailcoat, she looked like a lanky aristocrat of the finest order. She had even brought a pocket watch, dangling from a golden keychain, currently stuffed into a side pocket - and cufflinks adorned by her real family's crest.

It gave him considerable pleasure to think she must have stolen them from either her father or one of her brothers.

Their meager supply of clothes and other necessities were stuffed into his fake belly. His girth, his hat, the spectacles and his greying hair gave him the look of an adipose, middle-aged, wealthy inhabitant of the inner city. Hange was posing as his friend slash partner in crime. Two rich nobs going down into the Underground meant one of two things: they went for whoring or gambling - or both.

"We require passage," he told the guard, careful to keep all traces of an accent from his voice as he struck a crisp, commanding tone.

He dropped the token into the outstretched hand. Hange's acquaintance looked at it doubtfully. The MP was tall and muscular, one of those men who possessed ample strength without having to do anything for it. The Mike Zacharias type. Zoë's type.

"Do you now," he said and looked up, his eyes cold and calculating. When he let them glide over Zoë's form slowly, Levi knew that she had been right. He recognized her! Which, Levi's brain accepted with considerable reluctance, most likely meant that they had known each other very well in the past.

"Damn, Hange," the MP officer sneered, "you look mighty fine today. I always knew there was something not quite right about you, but I would never have guessed..."

He made a step in her direction as if he meant to grab her. Immediately, Levi stepped forward and into his path. Stopped short, the MP glared down at him. Levi glared right back.

"Step back," he growled, putting all his dislike into the two words. Given how much of it he felt for this man for everything he stood for, it sounded dangerous even to his own ears.

The MP hesitated.

"... or I'll make sure you spend the rest of your life on downstairs duty," Levi doubled down.